Shadow Flight
by Naukheol
Summary: Idle curiosity brings together the unfortunate prodigy of the ARKS and the amorous antics of the race of Sekirei. Swords are crossed, bonds are made, and the future of the Plan and ARKS is forever changed by the meeting of one blackbird and her flock. PSO2/Sekirei. May change rating to M in the future for violence depending on how the chapters turn out.


_**Chapter One: The Discovery**_

_**AP.7/23/239**_

_**03.00 AM**_

_**ARKS Mothership [Oracle]**_

_..._

_..._

_..._

_-Launch successful. Booting up login server.-_

_-Login server reached.-_

-_Accessing records, please enter credentials.-_

With a small sigh, the blonde-haired _Neuman _scrolled over to his second screen to check the details that he had been entrusted to several months ago. He had been reluctant to access the particular archives for a number of reasons, though the foremost thought would always come rushing to mind.

_It feels like I'm digging through a grave._

This wasn't the most inaccurate comparison he'd ever made, shaking his head as he pulled up the log-in information to access the files of the previous administrator of the _Oracle; _the ARKS fleet mothership that had been the subject of several horrifying battles during the past few months. Ever since its liberation from the talons of one Dark Falz [Loser], the cleanup had been quite a hassle to take care of. No longer could the Council easily give orders since their history was exposed. The whole of the ARKS organization now knew of the history that had taken place under Luther's influence: the Zero facility and its humanoid/dragonkin experimentation, the sealing versus slaying of the united Dark Falz, the assassinations of researchers who looked too closely at the reason behind the strange weather patterns of Naberius, and hundreds of other unsavory actions that the ARKS organization had taken during their command and influence under the now dead Dark Falz. The man swore that he'd one day wring Quna's wiry little neck for giving him so many headaches during the long hours of the aftermath. Uttering a quiet oath, he swore at his misfortune for his new job for the foreseeable future.

He was the one had to take care of the paperwork and media. Mountains upon mountains of messages, forms and files that he had to take care of had quickly overloaded his inbox, and with an audible groan of irritation he let his head bang against the desk that he had spent the past seventeen hours at with a quiet _tok._

-_Please enter login information.-_

Raising his head once more, Casra checked the file that had piqued his curiosity once more and pulled up a holo-keypad underneath the two existing screens. The sender had enclosed two riddles that would have made no sense to anyone who had not been present at the lobby prior to the core of the _Oracle. _Fortunately for him, his station meant that he was privy to nearly all information stored in the data cloud of the ARKS fleet.

Except this, hence his current situation. Fortunately he was given a way around, though he still was curious as to what exactly warranted security gates to such that only one with the position of _administrator of the Oracle _could access.

_Username: Name of the Watcher's successor. _

_Password: Name of the descendant which wields that which was lost._

Xiao had kept his presence mostly concealed, the very knowledge of his existence privy only to eleven individuals: the Council of Six and five other ARKS.

Sara, the first test subject of _Luther_. She was the first to know of Xiao's existence as Xion's ''brother'' and his role as the backup plan of Xion.

Ulc, who had been rescued through his efforts despite the official records stating her demise on the Second Battle of Themis, ship 128.

Theodore, the result of genetic experimentation and the crown achievement of Luther's attempts to create members with the potential of Claris Claes. And the last two...

Matoi. Claris Claes II, the last and current wielder of the true _Clarissa. _Even with his permission, he couldn't get any more information than that to explain her existence, which was by all accounts an anomaly in itself. He remembered entering her death statement personally, ten years ago.

_*FILE OPEN*_

_Status: MIA, assuming KIA in the Battle of Themis, year AP/228. Last appearance was during the battle with Dark Falz [Apprentice], who she personally killed. Went missing after an explosion destroyed the sector of the civilian centre she battled in._

_*FILE CLOSED*_

Well, not killed, if recent appearances said anything. She had managed to survive the ridiculous onslaught, taking the younger sister of an unfortunate ARKS as a host and disappearing for ten years, only reappearing after [Elder] was driven off.

Pinching his nose to stave off an oncoming headache, he brought himself to remember the last ARKS member. Officially, she had been recruited in the year 234 at age 17, entering active service four years later. She had quickly carved a bloody swathe through the ranks of Hunters, betraying experience beyond what she should have been capable of. Noting this, Casra had met with Regius and Maria to attempt to have her promote early into the commanding officer ranks, and eventually hoping to groom her into the then-empty position of Council Member 04. Not only had she said _no_ when she was offered to promote into the ranks of junior officers, however, but she had even recommended a replacement if they wanted someone that badly: Zeno, her teacher. He had a record nearly as impressive as hers, and while admittedly he had a better temperament for leadership, losing her to the lower ranks of the organization was still a blow to the Council in their eyes.

_*FILE OPENED*_

_Name: Lara Nauthiz, alias: Blackbird. Human female, age twenty-two as of AP/239. _

_Height: 205cm, weight: 89kg. _

_Station: Ship 10[Nauthiz]. _

_Command Rank: Chief Warrant Officer, by request of not being promoted further despite protests of Council Members One, Two and Five._

_Identifying traits: Ashen white hair, purple eyes (mutation). Blood type: B. _

_Class: Melee. _

_Main Class: Bouncer R75/Hunter R75. Alternate Class: Hunter R75/Fighter R75._

_Notable Traits: Abnormally tall, causing weakened bones and circulatory issues, leading to lower damage tolerance (DEF) than the average ARKS member. Only partially corrected with augmentation, expected lifespan is down from 140-150 years to 70-80 years. _

_History: Joined active service at 21, starting as a Hunter-class ARKs. Three months later, attained Rank 75 as a Hunter, attaining Rank 75 in both Fighter-class and Bouncer-class techniques on the field over the next nine months to date. Participated in the Second Battle of Themis, rescued Council Member #04 (Zeno) during the Awakening of [Elder]. Participated in the battles against [Elder] and the true form of [Loser]. _

_Extra Information: ..._

_*FILE CLOSED*_

Casra could only shake his head again. Lara had taken the ARKS by storm, being the most prodigious member of the ARKS of her age in active service. While regarded by most of her fellow ARKS members as a hero, Casra could only refer to her as a _royal pain in the ass. _The rest of her record resembled swiss cheese for all of its consistency, there not being any complete data on her whereabouts other than when she seemingly decided to show up or take orders from clients on the ship. Worse yet, she seemed to know Matoi personally for reasons that he couldn't figure out for the life of him because of her record!

And she was the one that sent the log-in ''information'' in the form of two riddles. Easy ones at this point, but he couldn't understand why she never got to the point with her messages. Deciding to abandon that course of thought on the better part of valor to save his mind, he entered the information.

_-USERNAME: Xiao.-_

_-PASSWORD: Matoi.-_

Pressing the enter key, there was a brief hum as the system processed the information before making a satisfactory _beep _that affirmed his permission.

_*FILE OPEN*_

He was in. Suddenly, at his fingertips, he had the holes to fill her record. Pinching his nose to suppress an oncoming headache, he realized the power that the administrator of the _Oracle _truly had as the heart of the mothership. Looking through, he had a sudden realization as to why she had so much experience, his eyes homing in on a specific paragraph that would have made even Regius or Maria do a spit-take.

-_Timeline alteration was used to bring Guardian Lara to AP/228 to keep Descendant Matoi from being infected by the invading Darker force, which would have lead to her suicide to prevent her manifestation as a Dark Falz fragment. Effort was successful, though it required the wipe of Matoi's memories and the wipe of the ARKS servers of her personal information to keep her future appearance from drawing the suspicion of the Council. Guardian Lara's presence was also required in several areas before the particular battle between 228 and 238. Other notable events were-_

_*FILE CLOSE*_

''Well, shit.'' Casra couldn't do much but blink, and he shook his head once more before forwarding the particular file to Regius. He didn't want to deal with the implications of what he just read right now, and decided to look through some of the other files in the database instead. Letting the dull hum of the room's cooling systems overtake his thoughts, he lazily scrolled through the database before coming across the name of a folder that stood out among the rest.

-_Sekirei-_

Curiosity overtaking him, he opened the folder to see a single file, holding just a few lines. Squinting to see them in the dim light of his room, his eyes widened when he realized what he was looking at.

*_FILE OPEN*_

_-Star system Sol, planet Terra._

_-8 non-ARKS starships spotted, 108 unknown humanoid life-forms detected per vessel. Photon radiation heavy. Local planet has post-industrial revolution society, likely closing in on interplanetary travel. Caution advised.-_

_*FILE CLOSE*_

Making a snap decision, he opened a new window, composing a message to his least favorite ARKS member, knowing he'd be able to get her out of the way for at least a little while. Finally, some time with blessed _peace!_

...

...Or so he thought. In time, he'd come back to this and end up banging his head against the desk so many times that he'd end up with a minor concussion and more blood to clean up than he'd like.

_**AP 7/23/239**_

_**11:30 AM**_

_**ARKS Ship 10 [Nauthiz]**_

_...eeeee..._

''Mrflrflg.''

_...eeeee..._

''No, shaddap. I'm sleeping.''

_...EEEEEE- CRACK!_

With that, the life of Lara's newest alarm clock came to an abrupt end as a photon-reinforced fist came down on it, damaging its speakers and causing it to spark in protest before dying off with little protest. Shaking her head, nearly seven feet of ARKS tumbled out of bed with a few bit-off curses.

_'Good. They keep telling me to stop breaking those, but they're so cheap to replace that I don't see the problem.' _

Stumbling over to one of the consoles in her room, Lara took to the clothing menu to get some semblance of decency on herself, not caring to be like most of the morning ARKS members who had no problem with wandering around in their pajamas, or whatever they decided passed for them. Since her living quarters were military only, the rules for dress for the actual mercenaries were very lax. It wasn't that uncommon to see several people wandering around in cosplays or skimpy dress, though she wasn't one to take part herself.

_'Pain in the ass to get one made for my size anyways. Too fucking tall.'_

Deciding to wear a red china dress, she tapped the buttons on the console to have the dress materialize perfectly folded and cared for in her arms, stumbling into it and most of her wear for the day. Stockings, reinforced leather shoes and combat gloves completed her outfit, and she took to the teleporter to bring herself into the shopping section of the ARKS mercenary quarters. Entering her destination, she braced herself for the now-perfected art of having her body taken apart cell by cell, perfectly reassembled at her exit destination.

_'It's never pleasant, but it doesn't hurt either.'_

A feel of sand washing over her body filled her sensory nerves when she closed her eyes, the system taking her calmed nerves as approval to begin. If she were to describe the sensation, it would be as if her entire body was sand, and for a brief moment she felt everything separate by just the faintest of a distance before it joined back together. When she opened her eyes to the simulated daylight of the ARKS shopping center, she rolled her shoulders to stretch her joints before stepping forwards and towards her goal.

''Alright. Food.''

_**One Hour Later**_

''Much better.'' Seated with the remains of a pair of sandwiches, iced tea, and a cinnamon bun, Lara gave a gentle smile to the empty air in front of her, taking solace in the bit of silence in the bustling court. While most ARKS members could go with little food (the CAST members, she remembered, needed none at all), she chose to eat because she enjoyed it. _It's definitely not because she's freakishly tall, _she tells herself. She just enjoys the simple pleasures of life.

Pleasure which was interrupted by a pair of loud _whirring _sounds as her neurological implants told her that someone was contacting her. Checking the identifier, she grimaced as she gave the mental command to respond, her heads-up-display showing the face of one Neuman in a ridiculous hat and outfit.

''Casra. What the hell do you want?'' The now-identified caller gave a small chuckle before responding with the all-too-familiar dry, sarcastic tone that grated on her very soul to have to deal with even if only once in a blue moon.

''_Good to hear you're still alive too, Lara. Have you not checked your messages yet today?'' _Confused, she opened a holo-screen with the briefest of impulses, showing to her the small connection that every ARKS has to the cloud even without any devices, thanks to their numerous augmentations and additions; one of which was a chip right between her fifth and fourth vertebrae that gave her at-will access to the ARKS cloud with just a brief input of photons.

''Nope. Too early in the morning, but since you called...'' Her voice wanders off as she reads the document on the ''Sekirei'' with some confusion. ''The fuck is this? Did Xion not think this important enough to have us investigate?''

''_I think she was protecting them? From us, maybe, and with admittedly sound reason.'' _Casra nearly sounded offended, though he knew now that ARKS policy meant they had to intervene with their species, at least to make sure that the planet in question wasn't a Darker hive. Unfortunately, exploration usually meant a military insertion of twelve to forty-eight ARKS mercenaries across the planet. While admittedly the number of personnel is tiny, each average ARKS was capable of handling low to medium class emergency codes, the higher class codes only needing a team of four. At any given moment, the planets that the ARKS organization had made contact and commenced operations on had three teams of four in a given sector, four of which could cover a massive distance with the mobile teleporters. Adding in the constant contact with each other and command, and they became a terrifying force to deal with.

And she wasn't the average ARKS. Nearly on par with any of the Six herself, and for a brief time on the _Oracle _having to hold off three of the six, she took solo missions that no others were willing to tackle. In short, she was one of the few people with clearance for missions like this that held such a high risk/reward.

''So you want me to check it out, then?'' Lara took her tray to the garbage disposal, emptying it out and hearing the incinerator turn the remaining scraps of food into nearly less than nothing.

_''Correct. However, the fact that there was/is an existing civilization means that we'll have to tread carefully. I'm sending only you this time. You'll be interacting in the cities at first, looking for these... 'Sekirei'... within. The campship will do a scan of the planet while cloaked, searching for the source of the photonic beings.'' _Casra cleared his throat before continuing, sounding a little bit more confident this time around. _''Your mission will be to observe these Sekirei, and seeing if you can locate any of their ships on the planet if they have settled with the local populace. You will report to me weekly, and I will be on call if you require my advice or assistance.''_

''Wonderful.'' Lara sighed, taking the stairs up to the preparation area to make sure she had her tools. ''I don't want to stand out more than I already do, though. We don't know if these Sekirei can detect other beings capable of controlling photons. Is a limiter advised?'' She silently cursed at the thought of having to wear a photon limiter; a bracelet that prevented one from accessing most of the photons to their control, but concealed their presence to photon sensors . It left her feeling defenseless despite her tall stature and hundreds of hours of experience, like going into a war zone without a weapon. It felt ridiculous.

_''Unfortunately, yes. We don't want to risk hostilities. It'll only make our job more difficult. You may bring your weapons in your holo-storage if you need them. I take it you'll use the Niren Mai blades?''_

With that, she allowed herself a toothy grin. Normally, the only ARKS members that had custom or hereditary weapons were the members of the Council. However, at the encouragement of Maria, Huey, Zeno and Regius, she had called upon the blacksmith, Zieg. Over the course of an evening, she and the android blacksmith had come up with a few ideas, the _Niren Mai _being the final result of their designs.

The _Niren Mai _blades were her personal design: they took the raw destructive power of the _Niren Orochi _dual blades and had a fraction of the cloaking ability of the 00 [Quna]'s weapons, the _Mai Armblade _twin daggers. Meant for the Bouncer's skill set, they were perfect for her style: go fast, hit hard as hell at anything that can break to tear them apart piece by piece, then back off and fade into the shadows again. While they were still a heavy drain on her photons while active, it limited itself in time to avoid damaging the user. For her, it meant seven seconds of invisibility. For her enemies, it meant seven seconds of sheer terror.

''Oh yeah. They're also fairly low-key for low technology areas. They won't even realize they're out of place if I have to defend myself.''

_''Excellent'', _Casra declared. _''Be ready in two hours. I'll give your pilot the details and cover the rest of your work. Think of it as a vacation of sorts!'' _She allowed herself to give a bark of laughter, knowing exactly what that meant.

''Means you don't have to put up with most of my shit here?''

_''Yep.''_

''Pay is good?''

_''Six hundred grand a day, one million per three pages of useful information that we get. We'll see how it goes after each week.'' _Her jaw nearly dropped at the sheer amount of money that Casra was throwing her way before remembering _what _she was doing. She was effectively the sole researcher of a new civilization, which meant she HAD to be paid a lot. The more money involved, the more difficult or lengthy her mission, and the more they expected of her.

''Figures as much. Alright, I''ll be on the campship then.'' She ended the call, shaking her head as she wondered what fresh hell Casra decided to put her in this time.

_Hell, at least it might be a change of pace._

_**A.D. 7/23/2020**_

_**8:00 PM**_

_**MBI Headquarters, Shinto Teito**_

''Fuck.''

The crackle of lightning filled the room as the woman watched the events unfolding before her on the screen. Her _Mu-chan _was being chased across the city by two other Sekirei: numbers 11 and 12, Hikari and Hibiki. Flashes of light would momentarily blind the satellites to the areas that they struck, the heat blinding the thermal sensors as she repeatedly switched between regular and thermal imaging to keep track of the action. Barely two days out, _Mu-chan _had not yet fought a true battle nor gotten the opportunity to find her _Ashikabi. _

''Ashikabi." The word came out of her mouth grated, as if it were poison.

For whatever reason, any specimen of their species, the _Sekirei, _were incomplete without finding their partner, their 'destined one'. They were strongest when they found their natural partner, weaker when they were forced into a bond. Either way, having an Ashikabi gave them a distinct power boost to even the odds against whatever foes they fought. At the same time, the Ashikabi was a chain around their neck. If killed, the bonded Sekirei would also go into what was called a termination, similar to a coma which the _Pillar _of each flock of Sekirei could bring out of, given the tools and the time. This, however, was not an option, leading to her current frustration. If it were any other of her sisters, she'd be happy to leave them to their fate without a care in the world.

However, this was her _Mu-chan. _She was hers alone and hers to terminate. They would stand together at the end, having killed all those who tried to get to the top before them. And on that pile of wreckage: of burnt, broken, mangled bodies, they would fight to see who was stronger, whose ideals ideals and strength would carry them to victory. They would see whether the world burned or grew on that day, and nobody would be allowed to interfere. That was their promise, the one that Number 88 [Musubi] and Number 04 [Karasuba] had made.

And that was being threatened. Biting back another growl, Karasuba dialled a number on her phone to reach one who could reach another to defend the unwinged Sekirei that she could not defend herself. Her duties would not allow that, and as much as she hated it she still had to play by the rules. If she broke the rules, she would be terminated herself before she could fulfil that promise.

''Takami.''

_''Karasuba?'' _The confused voice of the head geneticist of Mid Bio Informatics, Takami Sahashi, came out of the phone. _''Look, I'm a bit busy right now. I'm trying to take care of Kusa-''_

_''Can it. An unwinged Sekirei is being hunted down, and the rules won't let me interfere in this situation.'' _She hated dealing with people in general, preferring to take action herself, and she had to swallow her pride especially to call on the monkey that called herself her doctor. She hadn't needed anyone to take care of her before, and she damn well wasn't going to let herself be submitted to one beneath her.

_''Wh- umm, why the hell do you care?'' _Takami sounded truly and utterly baffled. Karasuba was known for being a hunter herself, not a protector of the weak. She _preyed _on the weak to lure out the strong, and everyone in MBI knew it.

''It's Musubi. She was released two days ago, and 11 and 12 are hunting her to eliminate her from the plan early. It's not technically against the rules, so I can't punish those two myself. However, you know someone who can.''

_''...'' _Takami sighed, knowing who Karasuba was referring to. She didn't know why herself, but the Black Sekirei always had a strange attachment towards Musubi, being one of the few that she socialized with on a regular basis- scratch that, on _any _basis at all since Yume's passing. She didn't know of the promise, but she _did _know that if she didn't call Homura within the next thirty seconds that she would have a _very angry Karasuba_ on her hands.

_''Alright, I'll call him. Provided she isn't terminated within the next fifteen minutes, she'll be safe.''_

''Good. It's his head if anything happens to her.''

_''Understood.'' _

With that, the phone gave a soft _click _as the call was ended, and Karasuba leaned back in her chair to give a light sigh, looking at the screen to follow the plumes of dust and rubble to where her _Mu-chan _was. She had confidence in her, but the ones hunting the flighty miko lookalike were hunters of the unwinged with the most combat experience in the Plan thus far. Spinning around in her chair, she picked up her _nodachi _and pulled it out of its sheath, taking a cloth to it and beginning her daily routine of cleaning and polishing it to take current matters off her mind.

Now that she thought about it, the city had been fairly quiet recently. There had been no spies, no dissidents and no incidents that required her or the other two members of the Disciplinary Squad to intervene. She knew that Haihane was okay with the peace and quiet, but Benitsubasa would not be quite so content. She'd have to spar with her at one point later during the next day, and maybe there would be something exciting for a change.

She desperately wanted the promised day to come, despite what the logical part of her brain was telling her. She wanted an opponent that would make her blood sing, that would make her heart race. Slaughters were too easy, assassinations too quick, and since Yume's sacrifice and the Pillar's abandoning of the squad, there were none that could hold a candle to her.

_I need a change of pace. When will the the plan start so they can release me from this cage?_

_**A.P. 7/24/239**_

_**01:00 AM**_

_**Campship, Orbiting Earth**_

''Casra.'' Lara was sitting down on one of the side benches on the small, cooped-up campship, staring out the window to see the brilliant lights lining the continents of the planet below and breathing out a small sigh of admiration combined with anxiousness. ''How long am I going to be cooped up in here?''

_''We've almost completed a full orbit. We just have the eastern section to finish scanning for these life forms. There's a few islands left to scan, but you'll go down there soon enough.''_ She'd been in the ship for six hours, the cloak of the ship keeping them safe from what she now knew were satellites orbiting along with them, drifting about in the empty void of space along with so much garbage. Their own cameras had picked up great cities of white and blue, lit with neon lights to give off the true impression that they were in a place akin to their own. However, that wasn't the biggest surprise they encountered. That award belonged to the species of the inhabitants of the planet.

They were human. Weaker, less advanced, but in far greater numbers than the ARKS fleet. They were scattered about the planet, clustering in great cities and small villages, in the mountains and in the hills. If it was even remotely livable, they lived there, be it in small or great numbers. It meant that they didn't have to deal with the Darkers, which forced the ARKS to abandon their planets in favor of their massive fleet.

For all their prowess, for all their technological advances, the fact was that the ARKS mercenaries and military was numbered far too small. Photon potential was too rare, and artificial users were nigh impossible to create with the dangers too severe to even consider. Of the roughly ten million inhabitants per ship, of which a hundred and fifty existed, only ten thousand ARKS existed per ship at any given time. Their numbers were one and a half million, but the fact was that the Darkers numbered so much higher.

She shuddered, the sheer _alien _factor of the Darkers coming to mind. Nobody knew where they came from, since their emergence came after the disappearance of one of the key research ships of the ARKS fleet. When the _Andromeda _had disappeared, _they _began appearing. In numbers too large to count, appearing anywhere that the environment had a high concentration of photons, they came. They devoured the photons in the air wherever they appeared, infecting everything in their path. They even infected _themselves_, which researchers could only speculate was a self-enhancement in the eyes of the Darker hive-mind. They could only be completely destroyed by photon weapons; any other method would still break their bodies, but the particles that made up their being would remain and infect the land around it. They were a cancer, and nobody knew where they spawned or where they reproduce. They only knew that there were billions if not _trillions _of Darkers that they'd encountered and destroyed over the scores of years of fighting and running. She would likely fight until she couldn't fight anymore or until she died, and she accepted this. The only thing she wondered if it would be worth it.

_''...Lara.''_

The voice of her commanding officer sounded off in her head again, shaking her out of her reverie.

''Yeah?''

_''We've found your LZ. A city by the name of Shinto Teito has shown up with one hundred and eight positive readings. All our eggs are in one basket.'' _A smile graced her lips, and she knew that she'd be setting down momentarily.

''Good. Any key cultural differences I should know to fit in? I'll need an identity as well, I'd think.'' Over the transmission, she heard Casra huff in indignation at the assumption that he hadn't already accounted for it, and she knew the answer to his question. Never hurt to ask, though.

_''Lara. Are you insinuating that I WOULDN'T be prepared for such a thing? I should reprimand you for that!'' _His voice had a faint tinge of dry amusement, and she knew that he was merely sparring with her.

''Yeah, well I'm too valuable for you, and you know it.'' Casra sighed, knowing she had a point.

_''You will introduce yourself as Amaya Nakano. Use your last name first, first second. Weird, I know, but that's what they do. A complete identify has already been forged along with necessary details. Any holes that need to be filled, you'll have to report so I can fix it. Otherwise, you should be ready. We've also forged enough of the local currency to get you adequate living quarters.'' _

Lara's eyes widened at the sheer scale of what Casra had done for her, realizing she was effectively going to _live _on the new planet and not just spy there for him. ''You never do things halfway, do you?''

_''Who the hell do you think I am? I don't have the title of Casra for nothing, you know.'' _She heard a faint chuckle before getting the distinct impression that he was shaking his head to refocus his thoughts. His position as *the* Casra meant that he was the epitome of the intelligent ARKS. He was fast, intelligent, perceptive, and he was the best at what he did. _''You will appear with a new set of clothing, but you'll still stand out via height, hair and eyes. I'm not going to force that change on you.''_

''And if you did, I'd come right back up there and slap you stupid, regardless of the fact that you're flying this ship.'' Nobody touched her hair except her.

_''Attagirl.'' _A small thump signaled the launch of the telepipe down on the surface of the city. Encapsulated in a ball of reinforced steel and rock, it resembled a small meteorite hurtling down towards the surface, streaking down for all to see. A _beep _of confirmation told her that it had hit its mark, punching through the rooftop of an abandoned building next to a massive skyscraper towering above all else in the area. This put her closest to the heart of the city, where she would learn the most in the shortest amount of time. She was free to go, but...

...

...Something felt missing.

''Where's the mission start countdown?''

_''Oh for fuck's s- fine.'' _Standing before the campship's teleporter, she heard a louder _beep _before a jolly man's voice came over her transmitter.

**''TEN!'' **A happy laugh escaped her as she took delight in Casra's irritation, and she braced herself to jump in. After only Lord knows how many years, she knew exactly how much the voice irritated him and that he went out of his way to _not _use it.

**''NINE!''**

_**''**__Good luck, Lar- Amaya.'' _A rueful grin spread across her face, and she couldn't resist one last jab at her commanding officer.

**''EIGHT!''**

''Aww, are you missing me already?''

**''SEVEN!'' **A mock gag came over the transmission before she heard Casra laugh again.

_''You? Maybe if I didn't' have Huey or Zeno to cover for your clients. The effort of cleaning up after your missions and the sheer amount of paperwork that comes from each and every event that your very presence seems to cause? Hell no.''_

**''THREE!'' **Breathing in, she gave a nod of affirmation. Casra was always able to talk quickly, and that entire spiel had only taken four seconds.

''That means you care at least a little bit, at least.''

**''TWO!''**

_''Eh. Shut up and go.'' _That was about the closest she was going to get, and she was satisfied with that.

**''ONE!''**

''Yeah, yeah. I'm going.''

The last beep went off, signalling that their parting conversation had came to an end, and the voice rose to a crescendo as it jovially announced her newest adventure.

_**''MISSION START~!''**_

With that, she took two steps forwards and fell into the water-like teleporter, feeling the world around her once more envelop her in the sand-like feeling that came with being momentarily disassembled. When that subsided, she stood up from her now-kneeling position to open her eyes to her new world, her 'vacation'.

''Who turned the lights off?''

_Author's Note_

_Holy shit, it's been awhile since I've written anything. I had the biggest block of writing I've ever experienced for Gods Amongst Men, and I've had the combination of schoolwork and PSO2 that's been taking up my time. However, on a whim while reading A Demon Lord's Hero (Not a bad fic, BTW!), I found the name of Karasuba. Out of curiosity, I googled her name since I hadn't heard of Sekirei before then and was wondering why the reviewers were flipping their shit._

_Dear god, did this story smack me in the face with how much I want to write it. My muse practically dumped a bucket of ice water on my head and said ''Write this shit. Now.'' For whatever reason I find the idea of bringing harem antics and dark sci-fi together. Given that PSO2 doesn't have much in the way of background material other than what's given in the game itself for the ARKS, the mechanics of photons in general, and the way that this shit works, I'll be riding on my coattails for the most part. That is to say, if there is a proper source I would like to be directed to it for future reference, but expect it to go a bit info-dumpy on the way I've interpreted what we've been presented with._

_That aside?_

_Well, here it is. I think I've finally settled on a writing style, and it feels good to actually take time to write this. Took about five days of writing plus two hours of editing, but here we go!_

_Reviews are appreciated, of course. Might update a bit sporadically depending on how I feel, though I have a mostly-complete storyline going for this with key scenes and everything._

_I'll see you all soon, hopefully!_

_-M-_


End file.
